RELIABLE BRITISH TWIN

IT WAS ALL GETTING A BIT DESPERATE. THE ELDERLY BMW twin that I’d travelled to the classic dealership to test had run poorly before stopping altogether and when the mechanic had arrived, he had announced that there was no way he could get it going that day. A substitute was needed and fast — but the only bike available at such short notice was the Ariel 650 Huntmaster, standing in a corner of the shop.

At first I wasn’t keen. After all, the 1955-model Huntmaster was one of the dozens of British parallel twins from that period, with little of the glamour of the famous Square Four built by the firm from Selly Oak, near Birmingham. Not only that, the Huntmaster was also an example of the British industry’s badge engineering —